Today while shopping at the Bukit Timah NTUC Finesse supermarket, I find workers at the fresh vegetable and fruit produce rather irksome.

My friend and I were trying to decide on some freshly packed salads when a worker came around to shove my friend aside. When I questioned him why was he so rude, his answer was: “I thought you were talking.” The disgust was we received no word of apology!!!

In the first place, there was presumptuous on the part of the worker. Mind you he is only a WORKER and NOT customers! How dare such presumption!

WORKERS are paid to render service and CUSTOMERS paid for the services. If there is NO CUSTOMER, workers are NOT paid and soon workers will be out of job!

If the supermarkets want to survive, I suggest the management consider the RIGHTS OF CUSTOMERS and offer GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Is this the new generation of WORKERS? Is this how the management is training its workers?

Is this what service means here in Singapore especially at the high end of the NTUC supermarket?

In the 1960s, at tender age, I remember shopping at Cold Storage, the high-end supermarket that treated their customers as kings.

All fresh produce and products were nicely placed on the shelves before the supermarket actually open its doors for service.

Today, generally Cold Storage still remain the same but not all outlets though. Marketplace and Kimisawa are worth the mention on generally courteous service. These are high-end supermarkets unlike…

By contrast today, we find workers streaming in at the same time as the customers. Often times, these workers are always in the way of customers and workers feel they have the right of way and boldly asked customers to move aside for them to trolley their produce or move aside for them to place the produce on the shelf!!!

Singapore has been talking about offering good customer service. Where is customer service especially at the high-end NTUC supermarts? Are these workers trained to be rude and abrasive and presumptuous to customers?

Previously under the HDB, complaints lodged that the food centers were not as clean and rats found visiting certain areas at dark but there was no case of death reported.

However, recently two elderly died after eating rojak (a local salad) and many had food poisoning at Geylang Serai food center. Two days ago, people had food poisoning from eating steamboat. (Steamboat is diners cooking uncooked food — meat and vegetables — over boiling hot soup under gas flame laid on the table.)

Rats were caught at night– around 70?

Today, foods sold in the wet markets or supermarkets are generally fresh.

Has the level of environment cleanliness dropped?

In the past, when locals were employed to do such menial tasks, there were no cases of emergencies reported except complaints. Today, are we depending too much on foreign workers? Mind you their level of cleanliness differs that of our locals. Who is to blame then?